A hard landing for virtual war: Iraq, land and insurgency

Since regime change in Iraq, there has been ongoing violence in the state. Iraq’s natural resources have played a significant part in this violence: they have been poorly administered, are distributed in such a way as to feed into ethnic tensions, and there has been significant corruption. The paper will advocate two moves to improve the political and economic situation in Iraq. Firstly, the paper will argue for the payment of a dividend to all Iraqi citizens, funded by the rent from Iraq’s natural resources. This will help to ameliorate the ongoing violence in Iraq and the ethnic tensions there, reduce the potential for corruption in the state, and ensure that Iraq’s natural resources are used to generate a significant income for their rightful owners: Iraq’s citizens. Secondly, the paper will argue that a relatively minimal Iraqi state should be funded through a land tax drawing on Iraq’s community values: this would offer an effective way to fund government, and incentivise Iraq’s government to build up the state’s communities and economy in order to increase its tax revenue.